1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a connector component for optical fibers, a manufacturing method therefor and an optical member for arranging optical fibers with good dimensional accuracy and good parallelism in a connector component for connecting optical fibers and in an optical communication device such as an isolator, a circulator, a splitter, a light guide, a thermochemical switch and an optical switch used in the optical communication field.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the optical communication field, a connector component for optical fibers such as a single-core ferrule or a two-core ferrule using zirconia ceramics or glass-ceramic, and a fiber array as shown in FIG. 1 in which V-shaped grooves are formed on a board made of glass-ceramic, quartz glass, and silicon are used for setting the optical axis in a connector for connecting optical fibers, an isolator and a circulator, or a ferrule and a fiber array for optical fibers used for connecting to an AWG waveguide.
However, in the connector component for optical fibers such as a ferrule for optical communication and a fiber array, when the material of the ferrule and the fiber array is zirconia ceramics, in a case where the ferrule and fiber array are mechanically stressed, the crystal structure of ceramics is transformed from tetragonal crystal to monoclinic crystal. The phase change causes an increase in the size of the ceramics. Thus, the distance between holes of the ferrule and the distance between the V-shaped grooves of a V-shaped groove type fiber array change. Accordingly, a high-accuracy optical connection cannot be maintained for the long term.
Additionally, when the material of the ferrule or the fiber array is different from the material of the optical fibers, the thermal expansion coefficient of the ferrule or the fiber array differs from the thermal expansion coefficient of the optical fibers. Therefore, the size of the ferrule or fiber array and the size of the optical fibers vary differently according to the environmental temperature. Thus, bonding surfaces of the ferrule or fiber array and the optical fibers are stressed. At the same time, there is a possibility that adhesion strength is deteriorated. Accordingly, such a connector component for optical fibers is not reliable. Further, when using the V-shaped groove type fiber array, two to three boards made of quartz are combined so as to fix optical fibers. Thus, more manufacturing processes are required. Additionally, since two to three kinds of costly adhesives are used, the assembling is complex and the cost increases. As a result, diffusion of optical communication is prevented.